Hamas “informed mediators” in Qatar and Egypt that the armed groups holding Israeli hostages “have agreed to extend the current truce for two to four days,” a source close to the Islamist movement told AFP.

These Palestinian movements “believe it is possible to secure the release of 20 to 40 additional Israeli prisoners” in addition to the 50 expected to be released in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners during the four-day truce that ends Monday night .

On the other hand, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry was called by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to discuss the obstacles that threaten the current truce between Israel and Hamas and the means of achieving a global truce, according to The Egyptian. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, writes News.ro.

During the conversation, the Egyptian stressed the need to use this truce to implement a UN Security Council resolution issued on November 15 that calls for a humanitarian pause to allow humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip, the Egyptian ministry said in a statement.

It will be recalled that Israel and Hamas on Wednesday agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza for at least four days to allow the access of aid and the release of at least 50 hostages taken by the militants in exchange for at least 150 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.

The temporary ceasefire took effect at 07:00 local time (05:00 GMT) on Friday morning.

US President Joe Biden said Sunday that his administration’s goal is to continue the truce between Gaza and Israel, continue the safe release of hostages and get critical aid to the enclave’s civilians.

During a speech at the White House, Biden said he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would remain “personally committed to seeing that this agreement is fully implemented and will work to extend the agreement. For several weeks, I have been advocating for a suspension of hostilities with two goals: to increase aid to Gaza civilians in need and to facilitate the release of the hostages.”

Biden said the agreement reached between Israel and Hamas was “structured in such a way that it can be expanded to continue to build on these outcomes.”

“That’s our goal: to keep this pause past tomorrow,” Biden said.